A Father’s Delight

Of course the big thing on my mind these days is the arrival of our brand new, 2008, dark-hair edition, baby daughter. Yes, in case you haven’t seen her or the pictures yet, we have this beautiful little girl who, by most people’s evaluation, doesn’t really look like Amy or I or Callie or anyone in the immediate families for that matter. She’s big too! Over eight pounds of healthy, happy goodness.

So I find myself a lot these days just sitting on the couch looking down at this new little girl laying in my lap. And I tell you, it’s happy times. I haven’t even known her for 100 hours yet, but already there’s a deep love and bond forming and there is genuine delight as well, delight in this little girl and the relationship we get to share together.

More than once this weekend I found it pretty cool to think that this is similar to how God delights in His children. I guess its one thing to say God loves us. We hear that all the time. We hear that God is merciful towards us, that He is gracious and faithful with us, that He is quick to help and look out for us. But then I read a passage like this:

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, he will rejoice over you with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17

God delights in me, he rejoices over me on account of His great love for me! That’s pretty wild to think about – that God actually receives joy and happiness because of His relationship with me. It’s even crazier to think how that’s true despite all my faults and personal unfaithfulness towards Him. His love for His children is pure. I’d like to think that my love for my daughters is pure, but I know that from time to time it will be clouded by my own sin, by my self-centeredness, by my weaknesses. But God’s love isn’t like that. It’s a pure and perfect love. It doesn’t change based on my actions. It doesn’t get stronger or weaker depending on how good I am today. When God says He loves us and that He finds great delight in us, He just does! And that never changes!

I hope the thought of God delighting in you is as neat to think about as it is for me. It’s one of those things I often find hard to believe. “Yeah, yeah sure He does, isn’t that nice.” But then when I find myself delighting in my daughters and start thinking about that verse and how God Himself says it’s true, I’m really thankful to be one of His children. I’m thankful to Him for claiming me as His son, and I’m thankful for Christ being willing to die to secure my spot in the family.